This is the illustration: “The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man that sowed fine seed in his field. While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat, and left. When the blade sprouted and produced fruit, then the weeds appeared also. So the slaves of the householder came up and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field? How, then, does it come to have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy, a man, did this.’ They said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them?’ He said, ‘No; that by no chance, while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up, then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.’”—Matt. 13:24-30.
Who is the man who sowed the fine seed in his field? Jesus provides the answer later when he explains to his disciples: “The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man.” (Matt. 13:37) Jesus, the “Son of man,” prepared the field for planting during the three and a half years of his earthly ministry. (Matt. 8:20; 25:31; 26:64) Then from Pentecost 33 C.E. onward, he started to sow the fine seed—“the sons of the kingdom.” This sowing evidently took place when Jesus, as Jehovah’s representative, began to pour out holy spirit upon the disciples, thereby anointing them as God’s sons. (Acts 2:33) The fine seed developed into mature wheat. So the objective in sowing the fine seed was eventually to gather the full number of those who would become joint heirs and rulers with Jesus in his Kingdom.
Who is the enemy, and who are the weeds? Jesus tells us that the enemy “is the Devil.” The weeds are described as “the sons of the wicked one.” (Matt. 13:25, 38, 39) In a literal sense, the weeds that Jesus referred to were probably the bearded darnel. This poisonous plant closely resembles wheat in its early stages before it reaches maturity. What a fitting picture of imitation Christians, those who claim to be sons of the Kingdom but do not produce genuine fruitage! These hypocritical Christians who claim to be followers of Christ are really part of the “seed” of Satan the Devil.—Gen. 3:15.
When did these weedlike Christians appear? “While men were sleeping,” says Jesus. (Matt. 13:25) When was this? We find the answer in the apostle Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:29, 30) He went on to admonish those elders to keep awake spiritually. After the apostles, who acted as “a restraint” against the apostasy, began falling asleep in death, many Christians fell asleep spiritually. (Read 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 6-8.) That is when the great apostasy started.
Jesus did not say that the wheat would become weeds but that weeds were sown among the wheat. So this illustration does not portray genuine Christians who fall away from the truth. Rather, it points to a deliberate effort on the part of Satan to corrupt the Christian congregation by introducing wicked people into it. By the time that the last apostle, John, was old, this apostasy was clearly evident.—2 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:18.
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